 Okay, our president attended the UNGA, the United Nations General Assembly. And at that assembly, he sought true partnership for Africa's development in that assembly address that he delivered. We have also right now this morning Dr. Frank Ter-Baggen, senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science in Benwa State University. Good morning and welcome to the program Dr. Frank, Dr. Baggen. Good morning. Thanks for having me. Okay, so seeking true partnership for Africa's development, what does that really entail? Okay, I usually don't do this, but I think this president deserves a pat on the back. I think in recent times that's one of the best speeches I've heard from a president. He couldn't have put it more sensitive than he did. Africa and Nigeria, particularly, you know our history. Our work alone is to end your history. So there is a relationship that exists with us and international people of the West. And this equal exchange, if I can use that term, Africa and Nigeria has not gotten the benefits that they would have gotten in this relationship. The relationship has been exploitative. It has been condescending. It's a relationship that has, you know, midwifed extreme poverty on the continent. So our president has, you know, shown clearly that he knows what he's doing. Let me use that term because, one, his engagement with Echo has been a little bit of sleepless nights. Then he engaged at the G20, which was better. We saw the promises made. And then he now got an opportunity at a more broader platform, the United Nations. And then he has used that opportunity to showcase his understanding of the world and also use that platform to speak for Africa. We have had partnerships with different parts of the world, the most enduring as Europe and United States. But these partnerships have not helped us. They have been exploitative. Any time we take loans, the loans take a huge chunk of our development capital. We've had discrimination. We've had racism. We've had a whole series of outcomes from this relationship. So what the president has told the world that, look, the future is in Africa, because Africa has all the resources. All it needs are valuable partnerships. We've had partnerships in the past that have not yet led anything. So it's nine times to go back and reject those partnerships in a manner that we can benefit mutually. Let Nigeria benefit, let Africa benefit. We want to engage the world. We want to engage not the situation where they come with promises. And in the end, we don't get anything. Instead, you have poverty staring you in the face that democracy will always be in jeopardy. Good governance will always be in jeopardy unless these partnerships engender prosperity for Africa. Because once there is poverty, there is restiveness, you're going to see on democratic change of government. They also use the platform to showcase the world that he is a democrat, and then talking about security. The security challenges we'll have are coming from resource fight, resource conflict. Africa has a lot of resources. Instead of coming and negotiating with us, they sponsor, you know, third party actors who receive the weapons and turn the whole African terrain into commerce, kidnappings, and other kinds of human violations. So I think the president, you know, got himself a master's to use this platform well. And I'm quite impressed by the speech he gave. Okay. We're all impressed by the speech that he gave. And other African leaders like Cyril Ramaphosa, for instance, also spoke about the fact that Africa is being exploited. And a lot of them are speaking out against this. But from what position are we arguing this partnership? Because if you have to be a partner with somebody, you will have to come from a position of strength as well. What are you bringing to the table? Now, even the resources that we have seem to be tied to some other countries because we are so indebted to them in one way or the other. So do we continue talking or there's something more drastic that can be done apart from just talking that can bring about this mutual respect that will also lead to mutual partnership with these countries that we're talking with? Okay. We have our own challenges here. Challenges of good governance. We have them. And it's because of the crisis, economic crisis most countries have. We have unreasonable amounts of poverty. And when there's poverty, you're going to see a lot of abuse, responsiveness, a lot of crime. You're going to see the exploitation of the state. The institutions of the state that resolve conflicts will be too weak to resolve them. And then such states are weak and open to more manipulations. You see private organizations because they want the mineral world Africa has sponsoring local armies here, giving them access to sophisticated weapons and then becoming a threat to the very state itself. So this is what is a major concern here. The President is saying, look, why don't you engage with us with respect? Why don't you do this so that you can also enjoy these benefits? We can also enjoy this benefit. We don't always have to go to you cap in hand begging for a place in the scheme of things. Africa is important. This is what he is saying. At the next century, you will always be about Africa because the resources are here. So if you want to benefit from Africa, Africa wants to benefit from you too. So the model you have of engagement with Africa has to change. We have to move away from a one-sided, beneficial agreement where the West enjoys everything. Come and re-engage in such a manner that Africa benefits in a manner that gives respect to us. We've enjoyed so much slave trade, colonialism, apartheid. These are very negative in their sponsoring non-state actors to organize and arrange conflicts. These are the patterns of exploitation. And this is what he is saying that has to change. We have good governance challenges too. We have African leaders who have also failed to deliver. But most of these leaders, if you can observe, are in partnerships with Western development partners. Some of them are sponsored by them. The case study of Niger is telling us in the face. So these are some of the things that he is talking about. Look, we need a new model. We need a new paradigm for engagement in which Africa benefits. They will also benefit. It has to be mutual respect. And this situation is always coming to dictate terms to us, terms that don't help us, terms that engender poverty, terms that create strong countries. You give almost 75% of your wealth to the French national bank. I mean, those people are not feeling bad about. This is what he is talking about. There isn't now more fairer terms of engagement at all international levels. This is a multilateral platform. I couldn't get any better than this. This is what the president is saying. Africa has its own challenge. The challenges can be reduced if the West is also helping us in green democracy. How? Your audio, Mr. Abag... By encouraging democratic governments that deliver democratic... Your audio, Dr. Abaggan, is not really friendly. We might have to cut it because of that. You're making very valid points, but we seem not to have a grasp of it because the audio is not really good enough. Maybe we'll have a redo of this topic with you, but right now we are sorry we cannot continue. Well, we're talking with Dr. Frank Abaggan, and we sincerely apologize for the poor audio quality that was coming while he was talking. Dr. Frank Abaggan is a senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, at the University of Benwick State, Mark Hardy. We'll just use this time to wrap up the show, and thank you so very much for being a part of our show. We have the entire breakfast family on Plus TV Africa. My name is Nyam Gul Agadji. Have a wonderful Thursday.